Okay, so Steve admitted that Apple "missed the boat" on the whole CD-RW thing and promised that the problem "will be fixed shortly." What exactly did he mean by that? A new build-to-order option at the Apple Store? A CD-RW in every new Mac? A diabolical scheme to destroy all CD-RW drive manufacturers, thus mooting the problem completely? Fear not-- the newly-revived AppleInsider springs to action and spills the beans on Apple's surprise CD-RW strategy.

Rumor has it that Apple always expected DVD-ROM to eclipse CD-ROM, and acted accordingly; instead of offering CD-RW drives in its high-end Power Macs, Apple supplied DVD-RAM. Unfortunately, the company put its money on the wrong horse, at least in the short-term, and the lack of CD-R or CD-RW drives in Apple's entire product line is now a source of embarrassment-- not to mention depressed sales. So to fix the problem, Apple is said to be including "DVD/CD-RW combo drives" in the higher-end Power Macs slated for an Expo unveiling. Cool! We didn't even know such things existed; our biggest objection to including CD-RW drives on Macs would be either the exclusion of DVD, or shipping a Mac with two 5.25" drive slots, which would be both inelegant and confusing for novice users. A combo drive is almost a perfect solution.

But what about the rest of Apple's product line? Well, while no new iMacs are expected to surface at the Expo, word has it that at least the iMac DV Special Edition will soon get the DVD/CD-RW combo drive as well. Since neither the iBook nor the PowerBook is currently available with a DVD-RAM drive, we're guessing Apple will stick with plain old CD-ROM and DVD-ROM on those-- although a media-bay combo drive for the PowerBook would be a nice surprise. And we're hoping the Cube at least gains a combo drive build-to-order option.

Meanwhile, AppleInsider reports that Apple is the mysterious purchaser of Radialogic's CD-burning technologies and is furiously working to craft them into an iMovie-like application to demonstrate at Macworld Expo. That certainly makes sense, since burning CDs isn't exactly as simple as copying files to a Zip disk; Apple would want to make sure it was as simple and as painless as possible. So rejoice! Soon Mac users will finally be able to buy standard-configured Macs with removable storage drives built right in-- and it's about time, too.